3-year-old Lachlan is a rambunctious kid! He loves to play with cars, trains and is obsessed with flags. He loves to watch Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig. He also likes to play with cause & effect toys. He lives with his mom, dad and older brother and sister. Lachlan and his family like to go for walks, drives, gardening and going to Canada’s Wonderland. Lachlan was diagnosed with Hypotonia, Global Developmental Delay, Underdeveloped Corpus Callosum and Autism Spectrum Disorder. He has accessed Grandview Kids services for Orthotics, Physiotherapy, Occupational and Recreational Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology and Social Work. Grandview Kids plays a major role in Lachlan’s life as his diagnosis significantly impacts his family’s daily living. Through the services he received, he has learned to walk independently. Grandview Kids is helpful in relieving family stress through listening thoroughly to their concerns in order to create a beneficial care plan. Grandview Kids Foundation is dedicated to raising the funds needed to support Grandview Kids (Centre) programs and services for children and youth like Lachlan. Thanks to our compassionate donors, Grandview Kids Foundation is able to make this possible!
Impact Stories
From Fear to Gratitude – Joshua’s Story
Today, Grandview Kids Foundation wants to share with you an inspiring and heartwarming story about Joshua & Jenny, and their journey with Grandview Kids.
From Fear to Gratitude
Joshua is a sweet, friendly 5-year-old boy who loves to say hello and make people smile with his genuine kindness. Greeting people, however, did not come easy to him and took a lot of hard work to learn. He was unable to speak or express himself, get dressed without difficulty, eat a range of food, or go to places – familiar or new. In late 2019, Joshua was diagnosed with ASD2, Moderate-Severe Expressive and Receptive Language Delay, Apraxia of Speech, sensory sensitivities and feeding issues. This official diagnosis was a welcome relief to mom, Jenny, who finally had answers as to why, despite her best efforts, communicating with her child was such a struggle. The road ahead of her would be long but now she had hope that support and help would be possible.
Soon after diagnosis, COVID-19 hit, making things a lot harder for Jenny to navigate Joshua’s diagnosis. Waitlists and closures made it a very long two years. The thought of how he would fit in a classroom was terrifying. Joshua has received several services at Grandview Kids such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech-language pathology and recreational therapy. For the last two years, he has also been accessing the Foundational Applied Skills Training (FAST) program. The FAST program helped him tremendously by teaching significant tools to use for the transition to kindergarten. They work on school readiness, routine-building, language, communication, behaviour and everyday life skills, such as dressing and feeding. Jenny appreciates how the focus is child-centered through authentic learning tailored to her child’s identity and needs. Grandview Kids therapists have recognized Joshua’s engineering-driven mind that loves to build and create. This awareness gives them the opportunity to develop individualized programming which helps promote growth by working with his strengths and interests.
This year in senior kindergarten, Joshua is a leader in the classroom. He continues to be kind, receptive in welcoming others and finds a way to play and communicate with everyone. Joshua is still a little boy with big feelings, but he is slowly learning to express his thoughts and feelings in a positive way. With supervision he can now dress himself and is learning to self-regulate and communicate his feelings through zones of regulation cues, pictures and colours. While he continues to grow, his progress has been immensely rewarding.
Jenny is proud of her son and proud to be a Grandview Kids parent. Through Grandview kids, she was able to meet many caregivers on the same journey, lost and navigating the system. She found other parents that “get it.” To give back, Jenny has joined the Grandview Kids’ Ambassador Program, Family Advisory Council and is a peer support friend on the Grandview Online Parent Support (OPS) Facebook page. She has a strong sense of belonging and community participation. She shares these passions with Joshua, whose hero is Terry Fox, and together they have just completed their 6th Terry Fox run. He is also incredibly active in Grandview Kids Foundation’s Get Active Challenge, representing so many kids who are on the same journey. Jenny is thankful for the way Grandview Kids and all of Joshua’s community care partners have impacted her family. Using gratitude as the lens to view life makes one unstoppable. Thankfulness cannot sit still; it always leads to action. Jenny knows that modelling this attitude to Joshua will carry him further than any diagnosis could ever try to limit him.
Surviving and Thriving
Ethan is three years old and thriving in life despite being born four months early requiring him to fight to survive. He developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a life-threatening gastrointestinal condition that required surgery at ten days old. He needed antibiotics, an ostomy bag and a second surgery five months later. After living in three different hospitals for the first seven months of his life, his parents were thrilled to take him home but did not know what to expect as they brought him home, feeding tube and oxygen tank attached.
As a micro-preemie, many medical specialists advised Ethan’s parents to keep realistic expectations with what he may and may not be able to do. Missed milestones didn’t deter them from staying optimistic though. They knew that Ethan as a hard worker and had his own timeline. At ten months old he pulled his feeding tube out and at 15 months old he topped using his oxygen tank, proving he didn’t need either of them anymore. His Lakeridge Hospital neonatologist referred him to Grandview Kids to begin physiotherapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT) and speech-language pathology (for minor speech delays). He received an official diagnosis of cerebral palsy (CP) by a Grandview developmental paediatrician at 19 months of age. PT/OT sessions at age one focused on goals such as head control and tummy time, and in time moved to sitting and learning protective reflexes. Today, Ethan can be found happily walking with or without his posterior walker and climbing stairs while holding onto a railing and a helpful hand.
The therapists at Grandview are really the life line for families who are struggling with a lot of heavy emotions. Having a team to support them and tell them what the next steps are, gives families hope and allows them to keep going.
Dr. Carolyn Hunt
Despite the challenges he has faced, Ethan and his parents have dedicated themselves to hard work in completing therapy “homework,” enough to attract assistance from his six year-old brother, Jacob. “Jacob helps Ethan with everything,” says mom, Kathy. “Jacob would sing the alphabet, stack blocks and play with him [Ethan]” to keep therapy fun at home. The pandemic has affected what resources were available to Ethan, and though missing the connections of in-person therapies, Team Grandview remained committed to Ethan’s progress through teletherapy. He finally begins in-person PT, OT and SLP sessions in October after almost a year of virtual sessions and his family is eager to show his therapists his accomplishments and to see him achieve new skills.
Ethan is working hard to reach milestones at his own pace and has no plans of slowing down. He has been a survivor since day one and teaches those around him the necessity to live fully. There is a certain pride found in defying expectations through dedication and perseverance. Ethan and his family know that there is more work to be done but they are confident that alongside Grandview Kids, the joy that lies ahead of them is limitless.
A decade of hard work
Fourteen-year-old Lauren had difficulties reaching her milestones from a very early age. As a baby, she was very quiet, didn’t roll over or sit up. By the time she was two, she still wasn’t walking or making any sounds. Concerned, her mom, Karen, got a referral to Grandview Kids through her family doctor. Lauren was diagnosed with Global Development Delay and began therapy with the team at Grandview Kids. Lauren is excited to start high school this Fall.
Then when she was three-years-old, everything changed. Lauren had a seizure, and then another one. She was brought to Sick Kids and had four more seizures in hospital. A week later, she was up to 10 seizures every hour, and a couple months later, was suffering 40 seizures every day. Many of Lauren’s seizures caused her to drop to the floor and would last a minute or more. With no end in sight, and little quality of life left for Lauren, it was decided that she would undergo surgery to remove an area in the right side of her brain where the seizures were starting.
As expected after surgery, Lauren experienced limited mobility and function on her left-side. Lauren began many weeks of in-patient treatment at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital.
“The reason why Grandview Kids holds such a special spot in my heart,” says mom, Karen. “Is that it played an important role in helping Lauren be able to come home from Holland Bloorview. It was hard on our family for me to be away with Lauren for so long, but our Grandview Kids physiotherapist helped to reassure the Holland Bloorview team that she would be able to continue the therapy she needed – even they were blown away by the help Grandview Kids was prepared to offer to get Lauren home.”
Since that time, Grandview Kids’ therapists have helped Lauren work toward her goals of being able to walk again, build balance and stamina, and improve the use of the left side of her body. She also attended Campbell Children’s School for junior and senior kindergarten and continues to visit the Muscle Tone clinic to receive Botox treatment to help her gain more movement in her muscles.
It’s been a long journey for Lauren, but she has worked so hard and made such amazing strides. In fact, Lauren was the #1 fundraiser in last year’s Get Active Challenge in support of Grandview Kids. She raised more than $3,000 by swimming all summer.
“Lauren just loves Grandview Kids,” says Karen. “In fact, every time we drive by she gets very excited and yells out ‘there’s my building!’”
Checking in with last year’s top fundraiser
Since 2020, Grandview Kid, Lauren, raised $6360 through the Get Active Challenge, which made her the top fundraiser for both years of this event. Lauren has dedicated entire summers to logging hours swimming in Rice Lake at her family’s trailer. Her family and friends rallied around her efforts by making donations, encouraging her on over Facebook, and even cheering her on from the shore during her swims.
“They would chant ‘go Lauren, go!’ as she swam,” says Lauren’s mom, Karen. “Everyone at the trailer park knows who she is and what she was doing for Grandview Kids. People would stop by on golf carts to drop off donations.”
Lauren is currently narrowing down her choices as to what she will choose for her challenge for this year’s Get Active Challenge. Her mom and sister have brought up lots of ideas, such as walking, or a combined walk/swim, but so far, nothing has felt quite right to Lauren. Stay tuned for more on that! One thing that this thirteen-year-old knows for sure is that she will be participating in Get Active again in 2021. After all, she has a title to defend!
Sign up for the GET ACTIVE CHALLENGE now at https://grandviewkidsfoundation.akaraisin.com/ui/GetAvtive2022/get-active-challenge
Update on Grandview Kid, Rudra
For many years, Grandview Kids has followed the progress of one incredible Grandview Kid, Rudra. Today, Rudra is eight-years-old and loves video games, gardening, learning about the solar system, and playing with his new kitten. He is ready to throw down a dance challenge.
A diagnosis of arthrogryposis, which limits the range of motion and function of his legs, means that Rudra has been in physiotherapy at Grandview Kids since he was very young. As Rudra has grown, he has become a bit more self-conscious about his physical differences. Rudra recently told his mom, Monjuri, that he is “jealous of the legs of his friends, because they can do anything they like.”
The many months at home have meant that Rudra has been sitting more, which isn’t a weight-bearing activity he needs. To counter-act this change, he’s been using a stander for a few hours a day, which puts him into a standing position in front of his computer screen. Rudra is also in consultation for a potential surgery on his knees in the near future, which would be extremely beneficial to his movement. This possibility is bringing Monjuri a lot of hope for the future.
Throughout the pandemic, Rudra is continued to be supported by his Grandview Kids physiotherapist through virtual appointments and discussions with Monjuri to help answer any questions. Monjuri also stays connected with other Grandview Kids parents using the OPS Facebook page, which she finds very helpful when trying to learn how to do new things. For Rudra, Grandview Kids has always been a safe place where people have time for him, listen to him, and encourage him. “He’s being coming to Grandview Kids since he was only one-year-old,” says Monjuri. “He really trusts everyone at Grandview, because they know the best, and safest way, to help Rudra achieve his goals.”
Catch a glimpse of Rudra’s journey as a Grandview Kid on our YouTube Channel:
Sign up for the GET ACTIVE CHALLENGE now at https://grandviewkidsfoundation.akaraisin.com/ui/GetAvtive2022/get-active-challenge